Arguments for curbing cats' right to roam and counterarguments

Overview: this is an argument between allowing domestic cats to express their natural desires such as being crepuscular hunters and keeping them much safer indoors, away from road traffic, predators and poisons but unable to behave naturally. 

Which argument wins? Safety versus natural behaviour?

Let’s explore the arguments for curbing domestic cats’ right to roam:

1. Safety Concerns:

   • Cats who have unrestricted outdoor access are at higher risk of road traffic accidents, injuries, and predation by other animals.
   • Exposure to outdoor hazards such as disease, parasites, and toxins can compromise their well-being .

2. Wildlife Impact:

   • Free-roaming cats are natural hunters, and their instinct to catch small animals and birds can have a significant impact on local wildlife populations.
   • They contribute to the decline of songbirds and other small mammals, which is a concern for conservation efforts.

3. Public Health and Disease Transmission:

   • Cats allowed to roam freely can spread diseases to both humans and wildlife. This includes diseases like toxoplasmosis.
   • Their interactions with wildlife can create a pathway for disease transmission.

4. Cat Overpopulation and Abandonment:

   • The lack of control over outdoor cats has led to an ongoing “cat crisis” in many countries, including the UK.
   • Thousands of lost, abandoned, and unwanted cats contribute to the excess cat population.
   • Charities spend significant resources trying to repatriate them and combat indiscriminate breeding.

5. Perceived Nuisance:

   • Cats’ natural behaviors, such as scratching, toileting habits, and hunting instincts, can be perceived as a nuisance by some people.
   • Their reputation as pests often leads to negative sentiments toward them.

6. Ethical Considerations:

   • While some cat owners feel that restricting their cats’ movements is unnatural, there is a need to balance their freedom with responsible ownership.
   • Restricting outdoor access may be necessary to protect both cats and wildlife .

In summary, while cats’ right to roam is legally protected in many places, it’s essential to consider the impact on safety, wildlife, public health, and responsible pet ownership. Finding a balance that ensures cat welfare while minimizing negative consequences is crucial. 🐾

Counterarguments

Let’s explore the arguments for preserving domestic cats’ right to roam:

1. Legal Status and Freedom:

   • Unlike most other captive animals, domestic cats have the wonderful status under the laws of many countries, including the UK, of the “right to roam.”
   • In the UK, cats do not have to be securely confined and can roam without fear of legal repercussions for their actions.
   • They cannot trespass, so neither the cats nor their owners are liable for any damage, soiling, or nuisance caused by their roaming.

2. Safety and Well-Being:

   • While indoor cats tend to live longer (often 15+ years), indoor/outdoor cats probably have a lifespan that is a little shorter due to various threats such as road accidents, killed by predators and poisoning by criminals.
   • Allowing cats to roam freely satisfies their natural instincts and contributes to their overall well-being.

3. Less Likely to Cause Harm:

   • The law recognizes that cats are less likely to cause injury to people or damage property compared to some other animals e.g. dogs. 
   • This distinction justifies their right to roam without strict confinement.

4. Enhancing Reputation and Well-Being:

   • Some cat owners feel that restricting their cats’ movements is unnatural. There is a need to let the domestic cat express its hunting desires. These are at the core of feline behaviour.
   • However, they are generally in favour of restricting their right to reproduce, which can help manage the cat population.

5. Balancing Freedom and Responsibility:

   • While preserving cats’ freedom is essential, responsible ownership involves finding a balance.
   • Encouraging neutering, vaccination, and responsible breeding practices can address the drawbacks associated with unrestricted roaming.

In summary, the debate around cats’ right to roam involves weighing their natural instincts, safety, and impact on the environment. Finding a middle ground that protects both cats and their surroundings is crucial. 🐾

Sources: various including: The Conversation, Psyhology Today and Cats.org.uk.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Keeping cats indoors is a rare solution where everybody wins including the cat. Is this correct?

Full-time indoors. Image: MikeB (Canva).

In The Guardian today there is an article written by Calla Wahlquist which says that keeping cats indoors is a solution where everybody wins. By "everybody" I presume she means people and cats. She is goes on to state that "cats should be kept indoors for the sake of cats".

For full-time indoor cats their behaviour is neutered as is their anatomy. It is the modern way to turn cats into fluffy plush feline toys. - MikeB

How does she know? How does she know what is good for cats? Is she mind reading domestic cats? No, she's not. All she is doing is stating that when cats are kept indoors, they are protected and therefore safer. But that might not be the same thing as being what's good for cats. Domestic cats might like to take risks. They might not mind being injured or hurt or killed. Perhaps their normal lifestyle is to take risks? Perhaps they are happier when they take risks.

Perhaps they need to be predators outside unsupervised. Perhaps being happy and living a life which is shorter is better than being unhappy and living a life which is longer. A lot of people think that statement is true.

And there is a big hole in her argument. People do keep cats indoors a lot nowadays to protect wildlife and keep their cat safe but they do not enrich the interior of their homes to ensure that their full-time indoor cats are kept entertained; kept happy. They just close the doors on them and confine them to what is a list zoo-like but entirely human environment. Somewhat sterile. Perhaps very sterile.

And that's why you often see people saying that their cat sleeps all day. Absolutely! That's all he or she can do. There is nothing else to do but to sleep/snooze because the poor thing is confined to the indoors all the time and the owner is not entertaining them. He or she is not playing with them. There is no way to express their character. The natural drives are neutered as are they. There is no cat companion to play with. Is that better for the cat?

The reason why people keep cats indoors all the time is for their peace of mind. That is the primary purpose. The secondary purpose is to keep wildlife safe but you will find in studies that the vast majority of people don't really care about keeping wildlife safe. They want to keep their cats safe because they don't want to be anxious about their cat being hurt outside. Or lost or stolen.

The decision to keep a cat indoors full-time is human-centric. It is about human emotions primarily. And in Australia where there is a trend towards keeping cats indoors full-time or curfews on keeping cats indoors at night, this changing human behaviour is a directive from the authorities. It is the conservationists of Australia who are telling the authorities to do all they can to stop domestic cat preying on native mammals and marsupials, especially the small ones. 

And so, the authorities dictate to people to keep the cats indoors. If it wasn't for that directive, I don't think they would do it. Unless of course they've being fully indoctrinated about protecting wildlife which actually might be the case.

I can't even be bothered to read Calla's article because I know what it states before I read it. It's just talking about protecting wildlife and then arguing back from there to say that it's better for cats anyway to keep them indoors. Frankly, it isn't. 

If we really wanted to make the domestic cat's life better, we would allow them to go outside perhaps into a large enclosure which encompasses the entire backyard full of games for the cat to play and trees to climb. No one will do that because it's too expensive. They will just close the front and back door and call the job done. I get it. I understand what's going on but Calla is wrong when she confidently says that everybody wins.

When you keep cats indoors full-time the cat does not win. They lose. They lose their life. They lose a chance to express that predatory drive. To hunt, to chase the feel alive. Their behaviour is neutered as well as their anatomy.

You can't check your cat's poop without difficulty if she is an indoor/outdoor cat

This is an aspect of looking after an indoor/outdoor cat which genuinely concerns me. Indoor/outdoor cats go to the toilet outside. Normally you never see it happen. I don't see my cat going to the toilet. I sort of know when he is gone to the toilet because he does it at a similar time each day and I can smell actually that he has just been but I don't know where and I don't see his poop.

And to be perfectly honest I am failing my cat in this respect because at a very simple level it is useful for a cat caregiver to check their cat's poop from time to time. It is a good diagnostic tool. And of course, if your cat is an indoor cat, you will be looking at your cat's poop every day when you clean out the litter tray. It's an automatic, quick check on your cat's digestive system and general health.

A lot of illnesses result in diarrhoea. Diarrhoea, as you no doubt know, is not a disease but a symptom. A common cause is overfeeding because the colon cannot deal with the quantity of food provided.

Food in the small intestine takes about eight hours to get to the colon. The bulk of the food is absorbed at this stage. 80% of water is absorbed in the small bowel. The colon concentrates and stores the waste and at the end of the process a well-formed stool is evacuated containing no mucous, blood or undigested food.

But if the food passes through the intestinal tract rapidly it is incompletely digested and arrives at the rectum in a liquid state. This is diarrhoea. And the transit time down the gastrointestinal tract can be speeded up because the cat has eaten some irritating substances including (this is not a complete list):

• Dead birds, rodents and other dead animals; 
• decaying food and garbage;
• foods that are too rich, salts, spices and fat;
• indigestible items such as plastic, paper, cloth et cetera;
• intestine or parasites (endoparasites).

Although it can happen, it is uncommon for a cat to have diarrhoea from eating toxic substances. This is because cats are quite careful about what they eat and they tend to eat slowly. But sometimes toxic substances can be ingested when their cat grooms themselves and clean their feet. These toxic substances can be toxic to the stomach and cause vomiting and diarrhoea. The substances include, for example:

• Tar derivatives, oil, kerosene gasoline;
• refrigerants and cleaning fluids;
• toilet bowl cleaner inserts, bleaches, insecticide;
• mushrooms, ornamental plants and wild plants;
• and building materials such as paints, lime and cement.

Some adult cats and kittens are unable to digest milk and milk byproducts. This is because they are lactose intolerant. Most domestic cats are lactose intolerant because they lack adequate amounts of the enzyme lactase. It causes diarrhea and for kittens it can be very serious because it dehydrates and ultimately it can kill kittens if the problem is left unaddressed.

Finally, some cats experience emotional diarrhoea when they are excited or stressed. If you want to narrow the search for the cause of the diarrhoea you begin by examining the colour, frequency of stools and the odour and consistency.

It is notable that veterinarians suggest that you bring to a veterinary clinic appointment a sample of your cat's stool as it will be useful to your veterinarian in diagnosing illness

Analysing diarrhoea, although it sounds horrible, is a very good way to diagnose the where it has happened in the intestines such as rapid transit or a bacterial infection or malabsorption and then from that you may be able to get a handle on the underlying cause.

1. For example, if there are several small stools in an hour with straining the likely location is the colon and the likely cause is colitis according to my veterinary handbook.
2. If, in another example, the diarrhoea is putrid, the likely location where this happens is the small bowel and the likely cause is an intestinal infection with bleeding.
3. In a third example, if the colour and appearance of the stool is soft and bulky, the location where this occurs is a small bowel (rapid transit) and the likely cause is due to overfeeding or poor-quality diet, high in fibre.

My suggestion if you want to take me up on this would be to occasionally place a litter tray in the home or outside the home with fresh litter substrate in the tray to encourage your cat to use it at which time you will be able to check on their poop.

Of course, you can make an outdoor toilet with sand or some other suitable substance but there's no guarantee that your cat will use it and they might have a variety of locations where they go to the toilet of which you are unaware. 

It is very convenient for the caregiver if their cat goes to the toilet outside. Perhaps it is too convenient because you tend to accept it and forget about the advantages of cleaning the litter tray. That's sounds extraordinary but there are advantages in terms of monitoring your cat's health.

Australian journalists massively exaggerate the number of native animals killed by roaming domestic cats

By a factor of more than 10, Australian journalists and the authorities in Australia exaggerate the number of native animals killed by roaming domestic cats. I mean that they multiple by more than 10 the true number. 

Domestic cat predation in Australia is hugely exaggerated. Image in the public domain.

How can I make that bold statement? Well, perhaps one of the oldest if not the oldest study about the predation of animals by roaming domestic cats was published in 1987. The scientists found that each domestic cat in a village killed 14 animals in one year.

"A total of 1090 prey items (535 mammals, 297 birds and 258 unidentified animals) were taken, an average of about 14 per cat per year." - Predation by domestic cats in an English village. Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1987.tb02915.x

There was a factor of 14 between animal killed and domestic cats. There are 3.8 million domestic cats in Australia according to Wikipedia. But only 2.9 million are allowed outside according to the journalist I mention below. Multiply 2,900,000 x 14 and you get 40.6 million.

That means domestic cats that are allowed to go outside in Australia kill 40.6 million animals per year in Australia as a rough number.

Laura Chung writing for The Sunday Morning Herald opens her article (link) with the statement, "the Biodiversity Council, Invasive Species Council and Birdlife Australia found that roaming pet cats kill 546 million animals a year in Australia, 323 million of which are native animals".

This is more than 10 times than that which was revealed by the study I mention which is a very distinguished and recognised study.

And, I think we can use our personal experience on the subject. My cat who is a great hunter and who is allowed outside in a productive urban environment in terms of access to wildlife, perhaps kills around 10 animals per year maximum.

Laura Chung is stating that each pre-roaming domestic cat in Australia is killing 188 animals per year! Does that sound right to you? Can you believe it? I can't. It seems fanciful. It looks like fiction to me. It means that each domestic cat is killing an animal every 2 days. It's just unbelievable.

It is another example of how journalists in Australia and the authorities on that continent exaggerate the predation of domestic and feral cats on their native species in order to push forward and campaign for domestic cat confinement around the clock. This is the goal of the authorities in Australia.

The ones who don't know better have been indoctrinated by the news media and by the authorities to believe what Laura Chung states in her article. It's a gradual training of the mind of Australian citizens to believe what I think is a fiction. It is wrong.

I could go to any other study actually and come up with a similar result. In a counterargument, you might state that free-roaming domestic cats in Australia have a much greater opportunity to kill prey animals because there are more prey animals to kill. I don't believe it. If you want to state that you're going to have to produce evidence to back it up.

What would you do if your mostly indoor cat goes outside and doesn't want to come home?

Sometimes you might do all you can to keep your cat safe and secure. You make them a full-time indoor cat and you look after them well. Or they might be a mainly indoor cat and sometimes they go outside and return willingly.

If your cat was raised as a stray or feral cat, they might want to revert to the outdoors lifestyle because it is a lifestyle that they know. It's those early weeks - the first seven weeks of life - which are so important for a cat. What they learn during that sensitive time they carry with them all their lives.

It is actually a bigger issue than that as all domestic cats are barely domesticated it is said. Arguably their natural instinct is to live outside the artificial environment of the human home.

Cat prefers to live outside the human home. Image: in public domain.

If you have domesticated a feral cat or adopted a rescue cat that was a stray or feral cat, they might want to revert to the wild so to speak.

They simply might prefer to live outside the human environment which means the human home. And in my opinion, there is not much you can do about it. You may see them, talk to them and try and entice them back but they decide to stay in the 'wild'. 

You can try and keep them inside full-time and more importantly transform the inside of your home to where it becomes very cat friendly with a catio or two and some window boxes to sit in to watch the outside (cat TV). There would be a couple of climbing trees up to the ceiling and so on and so forth.

But this would be something that a typical homeowner does not want because they want their home to accommodate humans and being entirely suitable for humans. A compromise is the way forward.

However, if a cat with an urge to live outside wants to vacate a home which has been reasonably modified to accommodate cat behaviour, they'll do it no matter. 

The rather negative point that I'm making is that on some occasions domestic cats simply want to live outside and are prepared to put up with the hardship. If that is the case, there is not much you can do about it.

You may have to kiss your cat goodbye because ultimately people don't own cats. They possess them if you want to put it that way. They probably don't even possess them. They live with domestic cats and care for them but they have their own mind and you have to let them express their own behaviours in the hope and expectation that your efforts will be sufficient to keep them with you as a companion.

There is the faint possibility that another cat - provided that cat really gets along with the resident cat - might help to keep the cat at home; to 'anchor' them. That's a chancy way to proceed because often resident cats don't get along well with incoming cats. 

And a former stray cat is likely to be more territorial than is typically encountered. That might make them more difficult when asking them to get along with a new cat.

Couple of Bengal-mix cats bring in 2 pigeons, 2 voles and a rabbit in one day

This lady and her husband have lived with cats for a long time, she says on the mumsnet.com website. They know cats but they were unprepared for the hunting prowess of a couple of Bengal-mix cats that they adopted. She says that they have brought into the home 'at least 3 dead creatures daily including frogs/toads, rodents, birds and rabbits'. And as mentioned in the title, in one day the pair caught and delivered to their owner 5 animals.

Bengal cat. This is NOT one of the cats in the story. The photo is here to illustrate the page. Photo: Twitter.

Distressing comes to mind; and messy. Think of the feathers all over the kitchen! And it is not good to see wildlife so mercilessly killed.

BUT - and it is a but in capitals for a reason - there is almost nothing you can do about it IF you decide that your cats must be indoor/outdoor cats because they've insisted on it by howling and meowing at you until you give in.

Sometimes when you try and keep cats inside full-time it proves to be impossible because they make such a fuss about it. And if you are sensitive to your cat's wellbeing you can't ignore the plaintiff meows of your cat begging you to allow them to go outside. Or the mope-around the home looking morose.

Bengals are particularly good predators

This is the great dilemma. Cats are topline predators in general. There are none better. If you live in the countryside as appears to be the case with this woman and her family there is plenty of wildlife to be had by a Bengal mix.

On the basis that these cats are genuine Bengal mix it does not surprise me that they are voracious hunters and killers as the Bengal is a wildcat hybrid. They have some diluted wild cat genes in them. This colours their character.

Wild cats are sharper and more hunting driven than their relatively docile true domestic cat. As she is finding out, if you adopt a wild cat hybrid and let them go outside there will be death and mayhem especially in a countryside environment.

Solution?

RELATED: Noticeable, brightly coloured, cat collar protects birds from cat predation (47 – 54% reduction).

She has not mentioned one possibility: placing a brightly coloured collar around her cats' necks. These are manufactured commercially and have been proved to be quite successful as they warn birds of an impending attack. There is a product on the market called Birdsbesafe®.

Image: MikeB

But they don't protect land-based prey animals such as rodents. Bells on collars don't work that well because the cat wearing them compensates by keeping their bodies still to prevent the bell ringing as they approach the prey.

The only other way is a big and expensive compromise which might not work either: a customised garden enclosure which allows the cats to enjoy the outdoors but which protects a lot more wildlife.

That said Bengal cats are very athletic and they may be able to get out.

Like I said there is not a lot one can do about this. It's natural behaviour. If the lady wants her cats to behave naturally and express their natural desires (raw cat mojo as Jackson Galaxy calls it) she'll have to accept this. The collar mentioned (if she and the cats can put up with it) should reduce the kill count.

Cat ownership in Finland. What is it like?

I wanted to discover some definitive laws about cat ownership in Finland, specifically with regard to whether domestic cats can go outside and wander around freely. I wanted to ask this question because Finland to an outsider is a cold place. It would seem to be inhospitable to domestic cats to be outside. Of course, I am stereotyping but what is the general rule about letting cats go outside?

Domestic cat in Finnish weather. Image in public domain.

I couldn't find any really good specific details but people who have lived in Finland say this.

They say that outside of the cities free roaming cats are quite common. The same applies to semi-feral barn cats and what the Finish called "summer cats". These are cats which have been adopted during summer months and then abandoned when winter arrives. That sounds rather unpleasant I must say. I would have expected better from the Finish.

I don't know of any specific law which states that domestic cats living in Finnish cities have to be kept indoors. I don't think they exist. I think the general rule is that domestic cats can't wander into certain places. To achieve this, they should be under supervision when outside the home.

Apparently, the law is "pretty clear" as per a person who has lived in Finland. They state that "any animal free roaming is supposed to be supervised by its owner. Any animal without its owner close by can be considered abandoned and, for example, a free roaming cat without its owner found on the property of someone else, might be killed."

They further state that there are hunters in the countryside shooting at stray and feral cats. They have the right to do this provided the cat in question is unsupervised and therefore the owner is not nearby and, further, they don't have a collar with an identification tag.

The general consensus in Finland appears to be that domestic cats in cities should be kept indoors and those that live in the countryside can roam freely or it is tolerated despite what I've said in the last paragraph!

I think, judging from my reading of this topic, the situation is rather vague and untidy. I could not find specific laws about indoor/outdoor cats. And I'm good at researching on the Internet.

People who have lived in Finland provide rather vague answers to the question whether domestic cats are allowed outside unsupervised.

This appears to be leading to the shooting of cats without sanction from the authorities. On that topic, if there is a law regarding keeping cats indoors, it is apparently unenforced or enforced poorly.

As in other countries, the Finish apparently are drifting towards the idea of full-time indoor cats. Although, you still see indoor/outdoor cats outside in the bigger cities. But it is apparently "technically illegal".

My research also indicates that sterilising domestic cats is not mandatory, which leaves many indoor/outdoor cats living in the countryside unsterilised, free to breed and procreate thereby encouraging shooters to take pot shots.

Should you let your Bengal cat outside? Answer: it depends!

I have just visited my doctor's surgery. I walked down to the clinic (about 25 minutes) and on the way back I saw a beautiful Bengal cat on the sidewalk and then crossing the road before entering the grounds of his home through the grille of a fence where he marked his territory against an object in the front garden. It got me thinking. Why was this Bengal cat outside wandering freely? Should you let your Bengal cat outside? And the answer is, it depends.

Here is the cat I describe. It is a poor quality picture I am afraid:

Bengal cat wandering outside in Kingston Upon Thames. Image: MikeB

I do not believe that you can let your Bengal cat go outside in the way that I saw today, to roam freely at will wherever they want to. Bengals are too glamorous and too enticing to steal. The cat I saw was beautiful and stood out.

Supervision

However, I do believe that Bengal cats should be allowed outside under supervision. This means that if, in the instance I refer to above, you live in a city, it must mean on a lead and harness. You can teach your Bengal cat to accept a lead and harness. This is much easier if you do it when they are young and ideally a kitten.

Most domestic cats need training to accept a harness and lead. Once you do they will generally walk with you although not like a dog. You are going to need a lot of patience and going nowhere for a while they investigate their immediate surroundings. Taking a smart phone with you to surf the internet will help with your patience 😃✔️. But keep a look out for dangers such as dogs.

Also, you can allow a Bengal cat outside if you have a backyard without trees and around which you can place a cat confinement fence. This may be very effective. I think, however, that it will be less effective than a harness and lead.

The reason is that a Bengal cat might be able to escape a cat confinement fence even if it is customised and cleverly constructed. Bengal cats are very athletic, inquisitive and determined. Of all the domestic cats the Bengal is the most likely to escape a cat confinement fence around a backyard.

A third option is a catio which allows a Bengal cat to smell the air and perhaps feel some grass under their feet. Catios are a good compromise between keeping a domestic cat indoors full-time and allowing them to have some sense of nature and stimulation from nature.

Stimulation

The need to stimulate a domestic cat is particularly important with Bengals because they are wildcat hybrids. Wildcat hybrids are generally slightly more intelligent than your typical domestic cat because they inherit their intelligence from their wild cat counterpart which for the Bengal cat is the Asiatic leopard cat.

And because they are confined to the indoors full-time they are likely to get bored and they might become a bit difficult. Plenty of stimulation which means playing with them and customising the interior of your home with, for example, a catio, and climbers is the way forward.

Harness and lead

Personally, I would go for adopting a Bengal kitten and immediately train them to accept a harness and lead from the get go and take them out. The harness should be a thick and secure one. You do not want your Bengal cat wriggling free. Some of the earlier harnesses and the cheaper ones are not, in my opinion, secure enough to stop an anxious Bengal cat wriggling out and running away.

Sometimes domestic cats become anxious and excitable when in a harness on a lead. This can make them do stupid things and in the wrong environment those stupid actions can lead to harm.

Good training when young and sensible supervision when on a lead is the answer.

Dr Bruce Fogle

Dr. Bruce Fogle, the UK's number one veterinarian/author, boldly and confidently states that training your cat is logical. Domestic cats train themselves very often and they sometimes train their owner as well. It is a mutual form of training.

In one of his books, Complete Cat Care he says that when cat owners come into his veterinary clinic it is pretty normal for them to feel guilty about not letting their cats go outdoors. And he recommends what I recommend by saying that:

"If you want to give your cat the option of going outdoors, and it too dangerous for it to do so on its own, training it to walk on a lead is an option for any relaxed cat that's not fearful of the outdoors."

Bengal cats are normally pretty confident and therefore should not be fearful of the outdoors. You can go online, I would suggest Amazon, to find a thoroughly sound harness and lead. Some harnesses are much easier to get into than others. I would pick one of those because it can be difficult to get a cat into a harness! But there again if they are trained from kittenhood it shouldn't be a problem.

Bruce has some lead-training tips and here they are:

• Training a cat to walk on a lead takes patience. It is designed for confident cats who are not frightened of the outdoors. Note: confidence can be built up and taking your cat for a walk on lead will get them used to the outside safely.
• If you decide to train your cat to walk on a lead you should continue to do so because once they experience the outside on a lead they will possibly find the indoors boring and it would be unfair on your cat.
• You should never apply tension to the lead as it is not designed to direct a cat but to simply keep them safe.
• You should avoid parks with dogs or noisy frightening places. A quiet, possibly fenced area, is the best.
• During a training session to walk on a lead, if your cat pulls on it wanting to go somewhere, go with the flow and don't pull back as your instincts might direct you. I think that this is where it is different between a dog and a cat. You can't really train a cat like a dog. Cats are trainable but there needs to be a little more flexibility in how you walk a cat on a lead compared to a dog.
• While walking outside with your cat on a lead, if you don't want to go where your cat wants to go, instead of pulling back, just pick your cat up, move elsewhere and start lead walking again.

Indoor/outdoor cat becomes very hungry in the winter

On social media, a cat owner tells us that she has lived with her cat for about a year.  During the summer months, her cat is very much an indoor/outdoor cat. She spends all day, every day outside and prefers to sleep outside under a certain plant in her back garden. She says that "during summer she was out all day barely eating her food". She's not sure but she says "maybe she was catching mice".

Indoor/outdoor cat. This is not the cat referred to in the article. Image: by Sa Ka from Pixabay.

RELATED: Are indoor or indoor/outdoor cats healthier?

Since the weather has turned and become much less agreeable for an indoor/outdoor cat she's become more "homely". She does not like the rain very much. And "she is suddenly so hungry!"

Whatever she feeds her, she demands more. She says that "some days I break and give her another tiny bit of biscuits or another day one of the kids got excited and fed her another packet".

Well, the woman is providing her cat with only dry cat food and not enough of it, it seems to me. The received wisdom of cat experts is that this is incorrect. Good quality wet cat food is better than dry cat food as it contains more water (70% compared to around 10%). Domestic cats do not drink enough water to compensate for the lack of water in dry cat food. This leads them to being mildly dehydrated. Therefore, cats must be provided with wet cat food.

As to the fact that she is suddenly very hungry this must be because she is a great hunter and during the summer months, she obtains most of her food through hunting, probably mice, near where she lives. And clearly, she does not bring her food back into the home. Not all cats do this. And/or she was being fed by a neighbour but the hunting theory is almost certainly the correct one.

A lot of domestic cat hunting takes place out of sight and out of mind of their owners. This applies to all domestic cats allowed outside. Although, we know too, that many cats like to bring their 'kills' inside the home, extend the hunt inside the home and then finally kill and eat their prey in a quiet corner of their "den".

The question on the social media site (mumsnet.com) regarding this cat is that she is a "very hungry cat". That's a question because she is asking "why is my cat suddenly very hungry?". The answer is she's not hunting any more in the winter months and therefore requires feeding. And she is not being fed enough and the wrong food by the sound of it.

REALATED: 16 tips on cat worms and deworming.

A side issue is that she should be dewormed regularly to get rid of endoparasites that she is ingesting with the mice. It is almost certain that she has worms after summer months of mice hunting.

Best dry food for indoor cats?

This is a question on Mumnet.com by a mum who has started to foster cats. Here is her question:

Hello, I've recently started fostering & have a neutered male who the vet thinks is about three. Because he's being fostered, he has to stay inside, so I'm making sure he gets as much exercise & entertainment as possible while he's here - climbing up to reach treats, jumping & chasing when we play with his toys, etc.

I've been giving him Go-Cat for indoor cats because that's what he was on when he came here, but a friend's just told me this is linked to UTIs. What would the Litter Tray experts recommend?

Image in public domain.

The answer has to be something like this:

Go-Cat is cheap and nasty. There is no effective difference in the dry cat food requirements of indoor or indoor/outdoor cats. The worst cat food is cheap dry cat food only 24/7. That is not good enough. There are stories of cats on cheap dry developing type 2 diabetes and then being cured entirely in time by going onto a canned food. These are normally obese, inactive indoor cats eating too much cheap dry. That is a bad combination.

RELATED: How much cat food by weight should I feed my adult cat daily?

High quality we cat food either commercially prepared or homemade raw must be the default food for all domestic cats but homemade raw requires real skill and knowledge of storing raw foods as there are risks with bacterial contamination and pathogens like Toxoplasma gondii. If you are good at homemade raw, I'd use it or at least test it. A lot of people say that it cures a lot of health issues such as diarrhea issues or gut issues. But it must be balanced with supplements and prepared and stored correctly. It is quite technical. Click this for some pointers.

RELATED: 3 diabetic cats cured with an exclusive wet cat food diet.

To this default food you can add a high quality dry for grazing at night. I use Hill's Dental Care. It is large kibble which is better for teeth cleaning. There is a big question mark over whether dry cleans teeth but if it is large there is chance that it does. 

But it should ideally be a secondary food. The wet is the default because it is more natural in terms of water content. It should have a high genuine meat content too. Insect based dry cat food is coming onto the market now and it looks good. That's natural too as a raw material as cats eat insects.

RELATED: Best cat food – informative overview discussion.

Even dry cat food made from plant material (plant protein) is okay in my book as the manufacturers add in supplements to ensure that it is fully balanced. Don't shy away from plant based dry cat food because you believe that they have to eat 'meat'. That is a fallacy. But don't try and turn your cat into a vegan or vegetarian either. That could be fatal.

RELATED: Auckland vegan cat owner says that her cat is healthier and happier on a vegan pet food diet.

A third type of food would be the occasional human food treat such as a chicken wing with bones. Dr Fogle DVM recommends that. I guess you could try it raw too. The bones clean the teeth. There is a slight risk with the bones but if Dr Fogle recommends it I'm okay with it too.

Cat in second floor apartment enjoys a lift service for an indoor/outdoor life

Your lift service sir. Screenshot.

We do see this from time to time. This is a particularly good example. The man wants his cat to enjoy the outside. When he leaves his apartment, sometimes he lets his cat join him. It seems that there is no cat flap in his front door. On other occasions he employs this Heath Robinson lift service. 

The man, Kai Liebe, and his cat, Misco, live in Munich, Germany. He says that "Misco is an outdoor cat that I trained to get out and back inside again using a bag as an elevator".

It looks a bit precarious but his cat is well trained. If I was being a little bit critical, I think he could use a rigid cage of some sort because there does seem to be a possibility that his cat could fall out. Despite that, his cat looks incredibly relaxed and knows exactly what to do. This method has been used for quite some time.

@donlapeno Good Boy Miso #catelevator #catsontiktok #katzenaufzug #smartcat #dailyroutine #catfishing #catfishingcats ♬ Fluffy cute cat was fluffy(815476) - 上野燿

Some people go to extraordinary lengths to allow their cat to go outside. Other cat owners go to extraordinary lengths to keep their cat inside. I'm talking about people who enrich the indoor environment in order to stimulate the mind of their full-time indoor cat.

There are probably upwards of a hundred million domestic cats living in apartments on the planet. Probably more. And they are all confined to a small living space; a space which is substantially smaller than they naturally require.

Domestic cats require something in the order of about 20 acres of space in which to live naturally and call their home. It might be larger. When a cat gets lost, they will normally be no more than about 500 m from the back door of their home.

Male domestic cats demand larger home ranges and females. This is entirely in line with the wild cat species. If you lose your cat, initially, look within about 100 m of your back door. If they are not there then they might have hitched a ride in a van or lorry or tried to return to their previous address if you've moved recently and you've not move that far.

Iceland split on banning free-roaming domestic cats

Icelanders are discussing whether to keep domestic cats indoors full-time. The town council of Akureyri, the "Capital of North Iceland" has decided to ban outdoor cats from January 1 2025. It was a majority decision in favour. They are going to stop the free movement of domestic cats in this town and they've given residents a long lead-in to get used to the idea.

Akureyri. Photo: in public domain.

However, a poll suggested that Icelanders in general do not support banning the free movement of domestic cats. But there are distinct regional differences. In Hafnarfjörður, 60% of the residents were either very or rather supportive of outdoor cats, for example. Almost the opposite view was taken in East Iceland where 55% of the residents were very or rather opposed to allowing cats to go outside.

RELATED: Icelandic government proposes changes to the law regarding feral cats

The Veterinary Society of Iceland is opposed to a ban on outdoor cats. They also say that the proposed law concerning Akureyri is badly formulated. They argue that keeping cats indoors all the time can have a negative impact upon the health of the animals.

They say that if they are used to free movement, keeping them indoors may cause behavioural problems due to stress and even disease. Bára Eyfjörð Heimisdóttir, the director of RUV (Icelandic veterinary association) is no doubt referring to stress causing cystitis. This is correct but it is a balancing act between various competing objectives.

Note: Below is an embedded FB post. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

RELATED: Police kill tourist’s cat brought into Iceland illegally

The ban is to protect wildlife. The veterinarians think that there is a better way to do this by, for example, putting brightly coloured collars on cats and limiting their outdoor activity during the nesting season. They also believe that the better option is to focus more on feral cats and reduce their population and encourage people to get their cats micro-chipped. In other words they are going for a more nuanced approach to protecting wildlife.

It 2016, I wrote an article about the difficulties of obligatory sterilisation, micro-chipping and registration of domestic cats. This was an article about Western Australia amending their Cat Act 2011. The amendment required that all domestic cats were registered, micro-chipped and sterilised at six months of age from November 2013. There were difficulties in obtaining compliance.

The biggest barrier to banning outdoor cats is having a handle on it. You need to know how many cats there are and where they live in order to enforce the law. To achieve that you need to register cats. What if people don't want to register their cats?  You don't know where they are so it is hard to enforce.

You may struggle to make a law which bans outdoor cats effective. That's the argument against a universal ban on outdoor cats and the alternative argument is that you can protect wildlife in a more effective way with a more nuanced approach as suggested by the veterinarians of Iceland.

Source: three articles on the Reykjavik Grapevine website.

Woman brings her two white Persian cats - mother and son - to the local pub

This is unusual. Almost unique as I have never seen it before and I've seen billions of cat photos! A woman brought her two white cats which I have decided are British bred Persians (not too extreme) into her local public house. The cats sit around placidly (as Persians do in their own homes). But the noise and strangeness of the place would normally cause agitation. Not in this case. I like to see it to be honest. It shows cats being integrated into human society rather than stuck at home. The important aspect is ensuring that the cats are safe. I mean they might run off and get lost. It looks like it occurred in Ireland judging by the overall atmosphere and the Guinness.

Woman bring her two white Persian cats - mother and son - to the local pub. Photo: Twitter.

Woman bring her two white Persian cats - mother and son - to the local pub. Photo: Twitter

To be honest, I'd be terrified letting my cat wander freely around a pub in Britain. And the cat is off the lead too. It is strange. I have a feeling that the cats have visited before which is why they are settled. The lady is probably a regular. The barman leaning over and giving the cat a treat indicates a routine has been set up.

Here is the tweet by Sean Keany. Sometimes these tweets disappear! If it has, I am sorry but I can't control it.

So there were actually two cats. The cat in the photos and on this lady’s shoulder is the mother, and her son is in the cat bag. pic.twitter.com/PFTU4n8aJK

— Seán Keany (@SeanKeany_) September 9, 2021

When you fall in love with your neighbour's cat

It happens and it will continue to happen: people falling in love with their neighbour's cat because he or she visits. This is what happened in a 'pandemic love story' by Solvej Schou writing for Associated Press. She describes a cat called Kevin who started to come around to their rented home in California more and more regularly. And gradually she and her husband Dave became more familiar with Kevin and him with them. I believe that Solvej Schou (great name) is a Los Angeles based writer and musician. She has an online bio - click here.

Pandemic love story - Kevin the much-loved neighbour's cat. Photo: AP (I'll presume it is by Solvej Schou)

And of course, the next step is that you start interacting more with your neighbour's cat and in this instance, they bought Kevin a squeaky toy. Sometimes at night she would hear a thump and see him peeking through the living room blinds. His face pressed against the glass, she said. They didn't feed Kevin or let him come inside but put a bowl of water out for him daily.

I think they did this because they wanted to respect the fact that Kevin was not part of their family. They did not want to upset Kevin's owner to use a legal term. When a person regularly interacts with a neighbour's cat within the confines of their home the owner can get the impression their cat is being stolen; if it is possible to steal a cat! It is in law but it is possible in truth? Can cats be truly owned?

One day, when she was sitting on the porch Kevin came over and jumped up onto her lap. She said that it was a big step in their relationship. And then time went by without that kind of intimate interaction until once again he jumped up on her lap while she was on the porch. She said: "I wanted to cry I was so happy".

It is a very powerful moment when a cat, normally a feral cat, actually, becomes friendly and wants to interact with you. It is something innate within people. Perhaps it is because we want to be loved. We always want to be loved and so often we are not so when a cat loves you or loves your company then it gets the emotional juices flowing.

On this occasion she petted Kevin for 20 minutes which must have cemented their relationship. She said that Kevin filled a void. This is because they had had pets before but were currently without. And then suddenly Kevin was attacked by two coyotes at night. He managed to escape up a tree but was injured. He survived with God's good grace but they didn't see him for three weeks.

She said: "If we never see Kevin again, that's okay. I'm glad he's alive."

And then sometime later Kevin crept up to the front door and onto their porch saw her and ran over to be petted. Once again, he started to visit regularly and "his affection was all-consuming". He dropped in every morning and afternoon throughout spring and summer. Kevin would be at their front door when they opened it. Kevin showed his affection by giving copious amounts of head-butts.

He also jumped on Dave's lap. At the end of summer things changed. Kevin turned up for cuddles but the sessions were shorter. And he darted off to another neighbour's home to sleep under a car.

And now they wait for him to turn up but sometimes he's not there. When he does visit, they are very happy for his presence. They put this down to the whims of a domestic cat. Cats do as they please, she said. When he shows affection, it is a joy to them.

I wonder whether Kevin's owners became a little bit concerned about the amount of time he spent with their neighbour and kept him in to try and break his habit of visiting them. The big problem with your cat visiting neighbours is that you might lose him or her. It doesn't mean that you are bad cat caregiver. It just means that your neighbours are a bit better or for some other reason your cat prefers the environment that your neighbour provides. It might just be a whim as they said.

But when you fall in love with your neighbour's cat you are on dodgy ground. You are in danger of upsetting your neighbour and you don't want that at almost any price. And you are in danger of losing your new friend which will hurt a lot.

Iceland has its own discussion about indoor/outdoor cats and feral cats

You might have thought that with the relatively cold temperatures in Iceland that feral cats would not be an issue on that island country but they are. They do exist in that country and I know because the country's Parliamentary ombudsman received a complaint about The Housing Complaints Committee's decision not to restrict free movement of cats in the "summer residence area". I don't know what that means but there appears to have been a parliamentary discussion about restricting domestic cat movement, which I take to mean keeping cats indoors. The ombudsman rejected the complaint which means that domestic cats can wander. The conventional method of cat ownership. There is continual pressure on legislatures to review this status. Uniquely cats are allowed to wander freely - c.f. domestic cats.

ASSOCIATED PAGE: Icelandic government proposes changes to the law regarding feral cats. The information on that page may differ because of sketchy reporting.

Icelandic cat. Photo by Natalia Chrzanowska.

Also, there has been a discussion about the feral cats of that country. One of the points made was that if a TNR volunteer takes care of cats, they are deemed to be owners of those cats. This is a point which has come up before. It is a barrier to the work of TNR volunteers which is so vital in stabilising feral cat populations. That concept has been rejected as I understand it.

They also discussed what is called 'ear-tipping'. This is surgically removing the tip of the left ear of a feral cat to indicate that they have been through the TNR program which includes trapping, vaccination, sterilisation and return to the location from where they came. There appears to be a discussion about whether NGOs were allowed to do it which seems very strange to me but it has been approved. Although sometimes it is done badly and it has been considered to be cruel.

A report on an Icelandic website tells us that, regrettably, feral cats have been exterminated in certain parts of the country. In fact, it states that they have been killed in many municipalities. The reporting is sketchy because it is a translation by Google of Icelandic but it is clear that Iceland has the same polarisation of viewpoints regarding how to deal with feral cats. There are those who want to kill them which doesn't work by the way and there are those who want to deal with them in a more humane way which means TNR, which in turn means ear tipping as mentioned.

It appears to me that in Iceland there are many volunteers as there are in other countries who wish to support feral cats in TNR programs and at this juncture it seems that their argument is winning over the extermination argument. That should always be the case because even though TNR is a slow process, and humankind does not like slow processes, it is the most humane and currently the only known and successful way of dealing with feral cats.

Perhaps one day humankind will be able to genetically engineer feral cats so that they are sterile. That would be I think the best solution. However, the better solution would be for domestic cat caregiving to be of a much higher standard such that domestic cats are never allowed to wander and stray and become feral and procreate. This is the root cause of the feral cat problem in any country. It is a failure in domestication of the cat which causes feral cats to exist.

What is the at the root of the indoor-outdoor cat debate?

The image below spells out in simple terms the root issues in the debate about keeping cats indoors full-time or letting them go outside. It really is about cat safety and protecting wildlife against allowing a natural life for a domestic cat with a reduction in safety together with predation on wildlife.

The indoor-outdoor cat debate. Image: MikeB based on Pixabay image.

There appears to be a general trend towards keeping cats inside. What is the motivation for this? Is it genuinely to improve domestic cat safety or is it more about convenience for their caretakers? Perhaps it is about both. I am generalising. There will be people who are thinking solely of their cat. And the cat comes before wildlife I believe.

People don't want the inconvenience of taking their cat to veterinarian who has been seriously injured on the road. There will be high cost and plenty of stress for the person and an incredible amount of pain, stress and discomfort for the cat. Life is far more even and undisturbed for the full-time indoor cat and owner but it is at the expense of boredom and an unnatural world for the cat, which is infrequently made more exciting by the caregiver.

The argument about indoor only or indoor/outdoor cats. Image: PoC.

I feel like I have to take cynical approach on this and claim that people are drifting towards the indoor solution because it suits them. There is also the anxiety factor. If a good cat caregiver is genuinely concerned about their cat's health, which they will be, to allow their cat to go outside is to invite anxiety not in the cat who is highly energised and excited but in the person who is anxious as to whether their cat is going to be injured or worse, killed.

The major dangers are road traffic, in America predators such as coyotes, and there is always that nastiest of animal: the miscreant, abusive young male human who takes pleasure out of taking pot shots at domestic cats with a BB gun or even a .22 rifle. That's the worst-case scenario almost or there is a poisoner somewhere out there who takes pleasure in poisoning cats with antifreeze. Even stabbing them seems to please some people such as the Brighton Cat Killer.

So, I think this big debate comes down to the personal feelings of the human caregiver and what they do is dictated by which decision improves their lives. That sounds like selfish and uncaring attitude but I stress that I am generalising. Humans are inherently selfish. That's why the world is in a mess. And humankind has a habit of ranking themselves above animals. When push comes to shove, the animals take second best (e.g. house fires: cats die, humans escape). 

The cat, himself or herself, doesn't understand these nuances in the argument. All they want to do is to go outside and hunt. They don't understand why they've been kept inside but they learn to accept it over many months and snooze and sleep the days away. They don't see the danger and when and if the danger arises, they accept it. It is a natural event to them. They don't rationalise that but it's a simple acceptance.

Domestic cats don't fear death like humans. They don't think about the future and whether they might be killed when they go outside. They live in the present. All these complicated thoughts about what the future might hold and whether a domestic cat might be killed are in the heads of cat caregivers. That's why they are at the root of the debate and in my view, it boils down to convenience and I don't blame people for that.

Image: MikeB

Life is complicated for people. They want to simplify it and keep their life as calm as possible. They don't want massive emergences and upsets and catastrophes to occur. They want their life to be controlled and controllable. This is at the root of the debate about indoor/outdoor cats and full-time indoor cats.

Cat plays with shop window display (video)

Cat plays with shop window display (video)

This quiet, little, wandering cat episode is very cute. The shop window balls caught her eye and drew her in. She ended up playing in the shop. It seems to me that (1) the cat is an indoor/outdoor domestic cat as I believe I can see a collar and (2) the shop is in a shopping mall. Sometimes cats wander into malls for company and excitement. She found it.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Big Valley council has passed a by-law on cat registration

NEWS AND COMMENT-BIG VALLEY, CANADA: Councillors, the ladies and gentlemen who run the village (which I'm told that it is), have decided to pass a by-law which makes it mandatory to register your cat with the council or some other agency appointed by the council. This is not a world first as far as I am aware but it is very rare indeed to introduce cat registration in line with dog registration.

Big Valley Council passed a by-law on cat registration. Image: MikeB

And it is reported that the reason why the council has introduced cat registration is so they can identify the owners of cats which citizens regard as troublesome because, for example, they damage people's property. This can lead to retaliation in which cats are harmed or even killed resulting in police involvement.

They say that concerned residents who don't like to see stray cats wandering around can use traps to contain them and take them, I presume, to a pound or shelter but they still don't know who owns the cat at least initially until they are scanned for a microchip. But sometimes cats aren't microchipped.

The strong argument is that if cats are registered, they will know who owns each cat. The mayor of the village, Clark German, was in favour of the new bylaw because the cats should be under the control of their owner. One councillor said that free range cats help to control the mouse population and that it is the owners who are to blame for any nuisance not the cats.

Despite this counterargument the councillors passed the law. So, there you have it: there will be cat registration in line with dog registration in the village of Big Valley!

Comment: registration of cats without micro-chipping might not work! You can't necessarily identify a cat by their appearance. I would have thought obligatory micro-chipping should go hand in hand with registration. And micro-chipping should be kept up to date because often the details become out of date as the owner moves home. Or the cat belongs to somebody else in due course.

This little story is very typical of much wider issues concerning cat ownership and whether cats should be allowed free access to the outside at their will. It is an ongoing debate in many jurisdictions in Canada, America, Europe, the UK and other countries. Australia probably leads the way in this debate. 

As I recall, one Aussie jurisdiction has introduced registration with limited success. Another problem is that you don't know who the cat owners are at the moment. If they don't come forward to register the cats you don't know that they haven't come forward.

This would particularly apply if in response to knowing about this new bylaw some people kept their cats inside for a while. Therefore, the law might be difficult to enforce accurately. It is the same with obligatory micro-chipping. How many people will volunteer their cats to be microchip? And if they don't what does the council do about it?

Why are cat's noses always wet?

I am referring to the visible part of the nose: the nose leather. Cat's noses are NOT, POSITIVELY NOT always wet. Google seems to think that people search for an answer as to why their cat's noses are always wet. It is very peculiar. You don't have to look far to find out that the statement is untrue. Just look at your cat's nose. Under normal conditions, inside the home (and that's important) a healthy cat without an upper respiratory infection (URI), will have a dryish nose leather. As stated, I am talking about the tip of the nose here which is described in the cat fancy as a "nose leather".

Domestic cat's nose. Image by Sa Ka from Pixabay 

However, if a domestic cat is outside on a cold day, their warm breath, emitted from their nostrils, can condense on their nose leather. This will render the tip of their nose a bit damp. This happens to people. We all know that. This is why you see people wiping the nose on a winter's day. It's about condensation.

And of course, an upper respiratory infection will mean that the nose is runny just like a person having a cold. This will make the end of the nose a little bit wet. Particularly as the cat will be licking their nose all the time.

SOME PAGES ON THE CAT'S NOSE.

So, in my committed view, a cat's nose is not always wet but fairly dry. There may, from time to time, be a bit of dampness on it because of condensation and that may even occur inside the home if the air temperature there is on the cold side. But under normal conditions and in a warm home NO, the nose is not always wet.

You will find that that the nose leather of your cat will vary between being dry and perhaps slightly wet throughout the day or over a period of days. It depends upon the circumstances and the ambient temperature. You can't say it's normal for a cat's nose to be wet or dry or even in between. It's a variable state. But just like the human nose it is generally dry if the cat is healthy and the air temperature is normal.

I read briefly in one online submission that cats sweat from their noses. This is not conventional thinking. Cats to my knowledge only sweat from their paw pads.

P.S. The interior of the nose is relatively wet because that's it's normal state due to condensation and the damp mucus membrane. However, the question in the title must refer to the exterior.

P.P.S. When cats engage in displacement behavior such as licking their nose it will make it temporarily damp as saliva is deposited on it.

CONCLUSION: The exterior of cat's nose is not always wet. It varies between dry, a little damp and damp depending on various factors such as air temperature and URIs.

Why does my cat spend so much time away from me?

The question in the title is asked by a cat owner whose job requires them to work long hours leaving early in the morning and coming home quite late at night. They think that their cat should be particularly pleased to see them when they arrive home but he barely acknowledges her existence. Sometimes he misses meals and he has stayed away for a couple of days at a time.

Outdoor Cat. Photo by Andrew Currie on Flickr.

This, on the face of it, is a classic case of a cat migrating away from the home in which he lives to find a new one. And sometimes, albeit rarely, domestic cats return to the wild, voluntarily. That might seem strange but it does happen. It happened to my mother about 40 years ago when her ginger tabby upped sticks and went to live on the golf course opposite her home. He came back about 15 years later riddled with arthritis for some warmth and attention. She put him down which I think was an extraordinarily cruel thing to do. I don't like my mother although she's been deceased about 10 years now.

Back to the point of this article, sometimes domestic cats do leave their home and find a new home as you probably know. They don't understand the concept of ownership, as you also know, and they might go to where they think life is better. Particularly if the current owner is rarely there. Many domestic cats visit neighbours' homes either to simply visit as part of their meanderings and wanderings and sometimes to feed and perhaps meet another cat to play with. The concept of trespass does not apply to domestic cats incidentally.

Being away from home a lot would encourage this and indeed neighbours sometimes encourage it by feeding neighbours' cats. It's just one of those things and it happens quite a lot. But what can you do about it?

Your lifestyle might not give you many options. If your work demands are high, you will be torn between caring for your cat and earning a living. You may find yourself in the position where you have, through no fault of your own, become a poor cat owner. You may have started off as an excellent cat guardian but end up being rather bad at it through a lack of available time.

You may consider rehoming your cat. You may consider allowing your cat to migrate to your neighbour's home. You might do a bit of research and try find out where your cat is going. I have used a radio transmitter on a collar for my cat. The receiver picks up the transmission. You can locate your cat this way from about 100 yards. It is not as good as a GPS tracking but it is much cheaper and reasonably effective.

My cat was not disappearing and is not disappearing. He loves me tremendously and vice versa. It's just that I wanted to know where he was going and I found out; it was a neighbour's garden where I think he rests. I do feed a neighbour's cat as well who pops in from time to time and plays with my cat. I quite like her visitations because it gives my cat the opportunity to play with a cat rather than me, a human.

But sometimes domestic cats visit a nearby home and eventually stay. At that point they've chosen a new caretaker. This would normally be distressing to the original owner. I'm sure that there have been many difficult discussions between neighbours on this topic. Sometimes neighbours become very fond of a visiting cat and they might surreptitiously try and adopt that cat.

The owner may complain and there may even be civil litigation in the courts about ownership. It's an interesting concept because cat ownership can be very fluid. It can be difficult to pin it down.

What can you do then? Well, you can ask your neighbour to stop feeding your cat if that is happening. Try and keep the peace because you want to have good relationships with your neighbours. There's nothing worse than having a constant row with your neighbour because it affects the amenity of the area in which you live quite profoundly.

You can think about giving your cat better quality food if that is a problem. Give him some treats but not to the point where he becomes obese. You can try and reschedule your work to enable you to work at home more often. The Covid crisis has certainly benefited cats in this regard. These long lockdown periods have been fantastically beneficial to the relationship between people and their pets but when it comes to an end the reverse happens and there will be some distraught cats and dogs suffering from separation anxiety.

Try and play with your cat more. Play is a great healer and it's a great exercise for creating a good bond between human and cat companion.

You might even consider keeping your cat indoors but that probably won't work because once you've allowed a cat to explore the outdoors for a long period of time it is impossible to keep them in in my opinion. Although you might think of a compromise which is a large enclosure around the back garden. This, too, might prove difficult for a cat who has a habit of wandering for hundreds of yards around your property. Back garden enclosures can be constructed for about £3,000-£4000 in the UK.

My cat Gabriel in his garden cat enclosure. He is very active. Photo: Me.

It is, though, a difficult problem to resolve because it comes back ultimately to the cat owner and how much time they have to interact with their cat. If they are hamstrung in this regard, they may not be able to find a solution. And cats do have their own preferences and there can be a chemistry between cat and cat and cat person. There may be a breakdown in the chemistry between the owner and their cat. Perhaps the owner was never quite up to the task in any case i.e. he or she was ambivalent about cat ownership.

On that topic, I think that there are many instances of cats leaving their home and going to a neighbour to live for the right reasons. These owners are probably quite pleased that their cat has left them because it resolves a problem that they've been chewing on for quite a long time namely how to get rid of their cat in a moral and humane way?